The Copper and the Madam Read Online Free PDF

few unsavory episodes and entanglements
while he lived in London before the war. Haven’t heard from him
recently, but now that I think on it, I moved and never gave him my
new address here in Lambeth.”
    Rhiannon grinned. Lord God, his insides
tumbled from the sheer delight of seeing her smile.
    “Allow me to bring you up to date then. She
and Stonecliff have been happily married for five years. They have
a son and another child on the way.”
    Rory nodded. “Good. All the peace and content
in the world to them both. I am not one for letter writing, but
I’ll drop Stonecliff a line soon.” He took a sip of coffee. “Back
to the incident at The Blind Cupid. Tell me again.”
    “The event happened close to six years ago.
When I interviewed Charles Embry, the Earl of Southen, he acted as
a perfect gentleman and had references from a duke, a long-time
customer. He assured me his sexual needs were simple and staid. I
believed everything he told me.” Rhiannon paused, picked up her
fork, and played with the bits of egg still on her plate. “I had
used Lila in a couple of mild orgies. I thought sex with a boring
earl would pass quickly enough. We did not know he smuggled in a
riding crop and rope under his long coat. He tied Lila facedown on
the bed, and while he penetrated her, he whipped her senseless.
He’d stuffed his handkerchief in her mouth so she could not
scream.”
    Rhiannon dashed a tear from her cheek. “Oh,
lord, the blood. By happenstance, Jacob passed by and heard the
sounds of the crop hitting her skin. He broke the door down. Lila
lay unconscious, her back in shreds. Jacob, Nigel, and Desmond took
the earl out back and gave him a beating to rival the one he gave
Lila. His leg never mended properly, I hear. Desmond smashed the
man’s fingers with the steel-rimmed heel of his boot and told the
bastard, ‘You’ll never hold a whip again.’ It’s a wonder my lads
didn’t stomp the life out of him. Last I heard, he’d left London
and slithered back to whatever country seat he holds. We have not
heard from him since.”
    Did his smashed fingers function enough to
grasp a knife? Would a man hold a grudge for five years?
    “Did he threaten retaliation?”
    Rhiannon thought for a moment. “Yes, but I
didn’t take it seriously.”
    “You have any idea if he liked men?”
    Rhiannon shook her head.
    Over the years, Rory had concluded that if
two consenting adult men wished to enjoy each other, all the best.
However, he had imprisoned a few men for such an offense when he
had no choice. Why would an earl move from whipping a woman to
slitting the throat of a man he’d just fucked? Rory’s gut alarm
began to fire. This earl would be as good a place to start as any.
If he’d learned one thing since joining the Metropolitan Police
fourteen years before, his gut never steered him wrong.
    “Kerrigan?”
    He gave her an apologetic smile. “Sorry
darlin’. Just thinking. Do you want to go to the hospital now and
make the arrangements for Gordon? Did he have any family?”
    “We were all the family he had,” she replied,
wiping a tear from her eye.

Chapter Five
     
     
    The past two days had their emotional high
and lows for Rea. As she’d promised, Gordon had a dignified
send-off complete with funeral horses wearing plumes of back
feathers, a decent coffin, and a plot in a shaded area of the West
Norwood Cemetery.
    Through it all, Rory Kerrigan had stood at
her side in support. Sitting alone in her study after the funeral,
she gazed out the window. She smoothed her black bombazine gown.
Many questions had flickered through her mind since she’d heard of
the brutal murder. Some phrased by Rory. Why was Gordon working off
the books without her knowledge? He had no appointments the night
he’d been killed. She discouraged working outside the brothel more
for safety reasons than the loss of income for herself, unless the
clients were vetted and approved by her. Perhaps Gordon had sought
a little male